The German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS) is responsible for the search and rescue service (SAR, Search and Rescue) in the event of an emergency at sea in the areas of the North Sea and Baltic Sea. It performs this task independently, on its own responsibility and on a private basis - financed exclusively by voluntary contributions, without any state-public funds. The DGzRS, whose patron is the Federal President, does not claim any tax money.

The vast majority of the approximately 1,000 German sea rescuers are volunteers. Within a few minutes, they occupy the lifeboat in the harbor and head out to sea. To save other people, they often put themselves in danger. Only about 180 of them on the larger, round-the-clock manned units are permanently employed by the DGzRS.

In total, the DGzRS maintains about 60 rescue units at 55 stations between the island of Borkum in the west and the Pomeranian Bay in the east. The Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) of the DGzRS centrally coordinates all SAR measures. It includes the BREMEN RESCUE RADIO, which monitors the international radio distress call frequencies around the clock.

Sea rescuers have existed in Germany for more than 150 years. The DGzRS was founded as early as 1865. In the beginning, eight or ten rowers at a time were on their way in open boats to rescue shipwrecked people. With their muscle power alone, they bravely faced the raging sea. Today, the sea rescuers go out with 20 modern sea rescue cruisers with daughter boats and around 40 smaller, equally seaworthy sea rescue boats.

Despite all the technical developments: People are still at the heart of the rescue work: the voluntary willingness of the sea rescuers to undertake their not infrequently perilous missions. In 2020, they helped 3,492 people in 1,720 missions on the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Alone 357 of them were rescued from distress at sea or freed from imminent danger at sea - around 85,600 people since the middle of the 19th century.